


City of Light

by PartlyCloudySkies



Category: XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, XCOM: Chimera Squad
Genre: Gen, Humans and aliens learning to work together is basically my jam, Jane Kelly leading Chimera Squad has lit a fire, Late Night Conversations, Post-War, Set immediately before Chimera Squad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23833501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PartlyCloudySkies/pseuds/PartlyCloudySkies
Summary: In a world cast in darkness, City 31 is a beacon.But a beacon can be blinding, if stared at too long.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 50





	City of Light

The skyline flickered like a bad television signal, towers breaking up and shearing along static planes, spires shimmering like a mirage. An electric hum rose and fell as scanlines shivered up the length of the buildings.

Central Officer Bradford circled the Geoscape hologram, squinting into the blazing electric blue projection before giving the console a thump with the heel of his palm.

The hologram snapped into focus. He grunted softly. It was the night shift. Once, that would have meant nothing. The Avenger had been fully staffed, no matter the hour. The aliens didn’t sleep — well, at least according to some of the stories, and you couldn’t trust those — so neither did XCOM.

But that was another time. Before the war was won. Now… now…

The Avenger still flew, but things were different. Her salvaged hull rattled and her crew wasn’t as alert as they had once been. She was a ponderous monster of a thing, a hulk that thundered through the atmosphere. Alien engineering and human technology wedded together to defend Earth. Things could go wrong, and the system needed constant care and maintenance, but she held together.

“Projector out of alignment again, Central?”

Bradford looked over his shoulder. “Director Kelly. We’ll get it fixed eventually.”

Jane Kelly tilted her head as she walked past him to the other side of the hologram. Her boots rang over the metal plates of the Avenger’s command center. “Not sure I heard you right, John. ‘Director’?”

They stared at each other through the hologram, blue that was too-bright highlighting their faces, catching on the ragged edges of the scars that marked the both of them.

“That’s right. Congratulations on the promotion. You’ll get the email soon enough,” said Bradford. “Straight from the Commander. Looks like your request came through. You’re in charge of Reclamation.”

Bradford watched Kelly’s eyes widened, her quizzical expression turn into a smile. “Hell yes,” she said.

“The promotion is deserved, but I can’t say I envy your job,” Bradford said, chuckling. “It’s a hell of a thing.”

“You’re not still hung up about the aliens, are you?” Kelly said.

Bradford shrugged and pushed away from the console. He looked up at the projection of the sprawling city between them. “I don’t think I’ll ever be over that. Not completely. Too many years putting the X-rays in my crosshairs. But no. I get it. Most of them didn’t have a choice in the matter. Hell, ADVENT had rigged the Commander into their psychic network to wage the Elders’ war on humanity.”

“I was there for that, John,” Kelly said dryly. She had been the sole survivor of the team that had extracted the Commander from the ADVENT holding facility.

“That’s what the Elders do,” Bradford said. “They take you. Your body, your DNA. They take everything you are and turn it against the people you swore to defend. I’ve worked with Skirmishers. I think I can adjust to the sight of a Sectoid walking down the street and wishing me a good day. Probably take me longer to get used to them wearing clothes, though.”

“So you think it’s worth it?”

“Hell, Kelly, what else are we gonna do? Throw them in prison camps? Wait for them to die or do it ourselves? We fought a war, but what did we fight it for? So we could win or so we could build a better world? The fight’s still happening. Except now it’s fighting hunger and disease and hate. I’m here in the Avenger and we fly supplies to settlements and put out fires. It’s all so much more complicated than in the old days, but still simple compared to the cities. And you’re going to make the biggest city that’s still standing your test case?”

Bradford squinted into the hologram.

“There are big parts of the world that are still broken, but I’ll take them over the cities. I hate cities,” he said.

“City 31 is the best thing we got,” Kelly said.

“Oh, it’s nice and shiny, sure. The streets are clean and the trash gets picked up on schedule. You can get a hamburger and it’s probably not made of human. But it’s still damned strange. People want to believe that they can go back to business as usual. They want to think the past couple decades were just some… nightmare. Something unpleasant they can wake up from and forget about.”

Bradford felt one side of his face twitch. Across from him, Kelly leaned in closer, the hologram scattering where she crossed into the projector.

“If it’s not the aliens, then what’s bothering you?”

The Geoscape projector hummed. The Avenger hummed. All around them. Bradford stared into the middle distance.

“The biggest snakes on the planet aren’t the ones that are 12-feet long and have fangs the size of your forearm,” Bradford said.

“You don’t like the humans,” Kelly said.

“I see them,” Bradford said after a long pause. “When I go into the city. Talk to the Council. Or gather supplies. I see them and they… no scars. Except for the one in the back of their necks. Where that biochip ADVENT puts in them went in. You notice that?” 

Kelly nodded, said nothing.

“They have all their limbs,” Bradford said. “Hell they look well-fed and manicured and they’re wearing clothes that looks like they weren’t pulled off a dead body. And it just makes me wonder. I wonder what we could have accomplished. If they had… just fought. An army of billions. At least the aliens didn’t have a choice. It’s stupid, I know, but… well. That’s why I’m not doing what you’re doing. It’s why I can’t. Times are changing. XCOM has to change too. They need someone who looks at these people and see civilians and not… collaborators.”

He leaned back and crossed his arms. City 31 rotated, and the shifting lights cast moving shadows across the command center.

“There’s plenty of ruined Old Earth cities still standing that can show you why they didn’t resist,” Kelly said. “They were scared.”

“We were all scared,” Bradford said immediately.

“It’s the same for me, John,” Kelly said quietly. “But there’s no easy answer for how to move forward. A day at a time. And try not to lose sight of what we fought for. That better world.”

“I’m still staying out of the damned cities,” Bradford said gruffly.

Kelly laughed, soft and rueful. “Fine. You can put the rest of the world back together.”

“Your squad ready?” Bradford said.

“A Skyranger is dropping them off at the edge of the city. They’ll have to take the APC the rest of the way in. I’ll be flying in shortly after. I want to meet this Mayor that’s got people so excited.”

“Then I’ll leave you to it, Director. There’s going to be a lot of eyes on your team.” Human and alien, working together to defend Earth. It was probably the only way it could work, Bradford thought as he felt the subtle sensation of the Avenger flying underneath him.

“If this works, XCOM is going to be fielding a lot of recruits, and not just from humans.”

Bradford shrugged. “I wouldn’t trust safeguarding the planet to only humans anyway.”

“That’d make for an interesting recruitment video. Just try not to call the aliens ‘X-rays’ in front of a camera. Think you could drop that habit?”

“Stranger, more impossible things have happened,” Bradford said. “Why, not too long ago some hot-headed resistance leader who racked up more alien kills than damn near anyone else in her squad got promoted right here to head a human-alien combined force. Anything’s possible”

Kelly smiled, shook her head and made her way to the exit. Behind her, the projection of City 31 glowed like a blue sky, and cast her shadow out in front of her. She walked towards it, guided by the light of the city.

**Author's Note:**

> idk!


End file.
